Sunday, November 29, 2009

At least once a month, I have my sweet nieces, Courtney and Mallory, as well as my mom over for a scrapbooking party. I am trying to pass along my love of scrapbooking to the girls.....and they do love it!!...and they are really good at it! Mallory is just 9 and Courtney is almost 12. This month, we did a few scrapbook pages, but mostly worked on Christmas cards/tags/bookmarks. A lot of fun was had.

Joy (gray and white kitty below) used to be their kitty until she came to live with me. She has a very serious heart condition and may not live much longer, so Mallory was very upset about that, but Joy heard their voices and came down to sit with them as they created. What a sweet memory and although Joy totally loves living with me, she really misses "her girls". (note: ignore the binder clip holding my curtains closed...that is a funny story for another post - I have fabric to make new curtains for the living room, but where is the time?)

My beautiful mommy!

Hard at work. What I do is bring down my big 6' card table and set it up in the living room and bring down all my scrapping goodies. I have a home studio/office, but 4 of us in there would not be conducive to creating!

Mallory and mom!

Courtney with Joy.

The girls always make a special point to hold my big boy, Marty. He is like a doll. He loves to be held like a baby. But don't wear black if you want to hold this boy...he is a major shedder, hence the quilts covering all of my furniture!

Mom making her holiday cards and tags........she is such a great artist!

I just love all three of these wonderful ladies. We have so much fun when we are together!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I was off for 5 days, but it still wasn't long enough! The days just flew by!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I think when you share your life with the four-leggeds, you realize that "animals are my friends" - and in my case, then, how could I eat my friends? I have my sweet pup, and my beloved cats, and even a rabbit (long story, but thanks to my niece, Mack, about 6 years ago). I also feed the wild ones - the squirrels who eat peanuts from my hand, the birds who literally flock around me and aren't fearful, and even the geese when I see them.

I have been vegetarian for about 14 years and became completely vegan early this year. I always wanted to be vegan, but was convinced that I couldn't live without my eggs and cheese. How wrong I was. I am eating better and healthier and yummier than ever.

I have reawakened my love of cooking this year. I have some awesome vegan cookbooks and have also been having fun "veganizing" traditional recipes. My carnivore friends and family are amazed that my food tastes good. Gasp! --- you mean vegan food tastes yummy? :)

Now to get this weight off.... It's great that I have nothing but healthy, organic, good for you food in my fridge and pantry, but......hello.....earth to Lolly....if you eat too much of it and have major portion distortion, you are NOT going to lose weight. Sigh....I am a work in progress.

And don't worry, my friends. I am passionate about animals and my veganism, but would never push it on anyone. I like to share what I know and what I have learned, but it has to be a personal choice for each person.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Oh yeah....I do have a blog. After too many months away, I am ready to blog again. I have a new blog look, a new outlook on life, a desire to lose weight and finally get healthy, and a desire to build a thriving and creative business. Currently I am a work in progress, but for the first time in a very long time, I am feeling optimistic about...well, everything.

First, my weight. I am tired of being fat. There...I said it. I just don’t want to be fat anymore. High blood pressure, arthritic knee, feeling ugly…..no more. I know it will take time, but I am ready. Finally, at the age of 44 (45 in January), I can say that I am ready. In addition to other things, I want to document my journey to good health and happiness. I have more than 100 pounds to lose and I know that I can’t think long term. Those numbers can be overwhelming. I need to take this one day at a time, maybe some days even a minute at a time, but I need, no I WILL, get there.

I am also going to use this blog to document some of my yummy vegan cooking, wonderful recipes that I have "veganized" myself and others that I have tried that my wonderful blog friends have shared with me. I love to cook and I love organic.

And finally, I will use this blog to document and share my crafty creations, as well as those of my mom and brother (who I run etsy sites for!!). We haven't officially opened my mom's etsy store yet, but am planning to do so Thanksgiving weekend (when I have 5 days off in a row!! woot!!). She has some aprons that truly rock!!! I will share them here when we get them up. I also run an etsy site for my amazing artist brother, so will share some of his work as well. And when I am ready to open my etsy store back up, I will share that as well.

OK, glad to be back to blogging!! Now it's time to catch up with some of my favorites!!